


The Monster (Inside Me)

by littlehutbeach



Series: Children of The Wild Ones [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hale Family Feels, Kid Fic, Past Relationship(s), Pre-Hale Fire, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-23
Updated: 2014-06-23
Packaged: 2018-02-05 21:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1832746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlehutbeach/pseuds/littlehutbeach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate Argent wasn't always a monster...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Monster (Inside Me)

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically an insight of Kate's past and what drove her to become a monster. It's a prequel to a story I'm working on which follows Teen Wolf from season one's Lunatic and on from there.

When Kate was young, she’d resembled Allison in more ways than one. Stupidly, she’d fallen in love with a werewolf, but her loyalty to a psychopathic and manipulative father had won out in the end, leading her to commit her biggest crime. Kate had grown up hearing all about monsters, not the kind that hid in closets to spook kids—no, the kind that roamed around freely in the dark outside in the world and killed for fun. Werewolves, vampires… pretty much anything that wasn’t human was a murderous monster. Gerard had always taught Kate and her brother Christopher that those monsters had to be put down. There was a code, yes, but you could always make exceptions if needed. Like when their older brother Michael was murdered by a werewolf on a hunt. Gerard had instantly retaliated, annihilating the entire pack without remorse for having taken his son away from him.  
Ever since she was a child, Kate had known that she was supposed to be a leader, Gerard had always told her that. That’s just the way things worked for hunters. Men were their warriors, but women were supposed to lead them to battle. 

However, Gerard spent every waking moment focusing more on Chris than her. Kate received all the criticism and discipline while Chris was the perfect child, the one that excelled at everything while she had to work hard for a mere look filled with less contempt than the last. Both of her parents were hunters, so Kate had no one to turn to. Her whole life Kate had had to learn how to fend for herself. She learned pretty quickly that nobody would lend her a helping hand when she needed one. Since the very beginning Kate had to deal with everything by herself. Kate could not count on her father—he expected her to be strong enough to dig herself out of any problem—and much less in Chris. The last thing she needed was to be seen as weak in his eyes. Weakness was something that Kate could never afford. 

At first, when she met Derek Hale, Kate didn’t think much of him. He was a teenager, barely seventeen, but pretty soon he caught her attention. Derek Hale was different from other teenagers. Yes, he was just as narcissistic and naïve as the rest of them, but there was so much more to him than that when she looked into his eyes. Those green eyes of his contradicted the smug persona he wore around at school to appear like the cool kid. Kate saw a maturity that came from losing someone close and being disappointed. Derek was just… special. He was a good kid. Most of all, though, his family intrigued her.

The Hales were an intricate family. They were close and loving, not to mention supportive. Talia Hale loved all her children equally and never made them feel like they had to prove themselves to gain her love. She gave it to them freely. Derek Hale took that for granted. Kate had never had any of that. It was no wonder Derek was so… good. So pure and innocent still even after what had happened with Paige. Because as soon as the Hales captured her attention, Kate decided to find out everything about them. That werewolf family had a clean record. They hadn’t hurt a single human. Never. Until Paige that is.

No sooner did she figure this out that Kate slowly entwined herself with Derek. It was easy. Derek was still a young, naïve boy that she found easy to manipulate. With a father like Gerard, Kate had to learn the art of lying and getting away with whatever she could. More importantly, her father had taught her that there was always a way—a loophole, to get things done. So that’s what Kate did. She found Derek’s weakness, pretty girls that seemed to be noble and kind, that’s what she became. Kate became the exact opposite of what she was.

It wasn’t easy to pretend at first. But then, as time went by, Kate found herself becoming more and more like the girl she was only supposed to pretend to be. Kate suddenly wanted to be that girl, the one that cared for others and had friends; someone that could laugh and joke around with her boyfriend. The words that came out of her mouth were the truth, too. For some reason Kate told Derek about her family problems, how Gerard had always preferred her brothers to her and the lack of parental love in her life as she gre up. By then, Kate had actually fallen for Derek and thought that she could keep her dirty little secret a secret for a little bit longer. After all, nobody else knew about Derek or his family. Kate hadn’t told Gerard about her side project. For all her father knew, she was just taking some time off before going back to Europe for some training and then more hunting. At that point Kate had already decided that she couldn’t tell anyone about the Hales. She wanted to keep Derek and his family safe. One of them deserved a nice, lovely life.

Because despite the fact that Kate envied Derek’s perfect life, she wasn’t a monster that could rat him out to other hunters so that they killed him or his family. And neither was Derek. What happened with Paige had been a tragedy, an accident. Kate was somewhat aware of the fact that she was making up excuses for the murder of a young girl that could have grown up to make great things happen, but her love for Derek blinded her. Looking back on it, Kate could tell that she’d never been truly in love with Derek. She’d been intrigued with the idea of someone like Derek—pure at heart and innocent, the complete opposite of her—interested in someone that was so hurt and broken. In more ways than one, Kate could see herself in Derek’s shoes with a loving and caring family that would support her no matter what. She’d made the mistake of coveting something she could never have and paid the price dearly.

Kate’s soft spot for the Hales is what doomed them all in the first place. She realized that long after she became a monster when she was able to think more clear than ever.  
Soon, way too soon for Kate’s taste, her fling with Derek had to end. Gerard stormed into town demanding blood for the death of his wife at the hands of some monster. The news of her mother’s passing—a month too late—drove Kate into madness. While her relationship with her mother had been strained at best, Nina Argent had been a great woman—strong and brave, with a character that could rival only Gerard Argent. Also, Nina had been the one to show a bit more kindness than anyone to Kate. It showed just how screwed up Kate’s childhood had been. She still adored the same woman who had slapped her hard across the face, hard enough to loosen some teeth and break her lip, and then demanded she picked up the gun again and this time shoot the target or she’d hit her over and over until she got it right. Regardless, Nina had at least cared a little, way more than Gerard did that is.

Finding out that she was pregnant around the same time was the final nail into the Hale’s coffin. Kate wasn’t in the right state of mind at the moment and acted recklessly to get rid of the evidence that might incriminate her and the child she was expecting to the werewolf family. It didn’t take long for Gerard to find out about the Hale family, but at least he didn’t connect the dots with Kate’s pregnancy.

“Your mother is dead, and you were here whoring yourself out to some John!” Gerard growled and, much like Nina had done many times before, slapped her.

Kate spat blood and whimpered. “Father—” She was unable to look him in the eyes, afraid that he’d take one look and realize the truth about the pregnancy.

“Nina must be turning over in her grave.” Gerard hissed harshly, glowering with steel in his eyes. “She ended up with a whore for a daughter, a good for nothing! A whole pack of wolves is living in this same town, right under your nose, and you did nothing! Many disappearances over the years, and then that little girl’s death last year… yet, you still couldn’t figure it out.” He grabbed her by the arm with one hand and pulled her up, with the other Gerard gripped her hair and yanked. Their faces were so close, Kate could feel his warm breath on her face and it terrified her. She might as well have been face to face with some demon the way her father's presence terrified her in that moment. Gerard had never been so violent with her. He’d rarely laid a hand on her. This was uncharted territory and Kate didn't like not knowing what came next.

Now he was almost ripping her hair out as he shook with rage. Tears ran down Kate’s face. Yes, she’d suffered worse over the years, physical pain that is. All the emotional trauma she’d collected had already been bottled up to make things easier for her, but at the moment Gerard had loosened the jar with the news of her mother’s passing and Kate didn’t know what to do. She felt lost. Guilty. Nina had been killed while Kate had been having an affair with the very same kind of… of… thing that killed her mother. Kate was disgusted. Gerard was right. She was an idiot. A good for nothing.

“You’re weak.” Gerard whispered in her ear, then pushed her away.

Kate landed on the floor hard and hit her head against the wall so hard her teeth rattled. For a moment Kate just laid there on their hotel room’s floor crying and whimpering like a weak little child. Crying for the loss of her mother, her father’s rejection since she was little and because right there and then she realized just how alone she truly was. No one would burst through that door to rescue her and make sure she was alright. There was no one in her life that would stand up to Gerard for her. No one, not even her own brother. Much less him, actually. Because he was perfect. Daddy’s perfect little soldier. Kate realized her loneliness and accepted it. When she did, and as she laid there soaking up her father’s harsh words and brutal beatings, she embraced everything. Kate enveloped herself in all the pain and loneliness that she knew would always be her companions, and grew angrier. They gave her the strength to retaliate.

For years life had been a bitch to Kate, she got a shitty life and horrible parents. Since the moment she was born Kate had already had her whole life planned out by the same people who never really seemed to want her, much less love her, and Kate was tired of fighting. There would never be anything but this in her life. Kate would never know what having a real family meant, she would never be normal like she’d wished she was when she was a kid. She used to want that, a normal life and family. Other teenagers had seemed so carefree, so happy with their simple lives. They would never have to worry about the monsters that lurked in the dark or walked among them every day. In normal people’s lives sibling rivalry didn’t necessarily result in broken bones after a training session or bruises and black eyes, much less knife wounds. Kids actually had childhoods, unlike Kate and her brothers.

After Kate fully accepted her fate a few weeks after Gerard locked her up, she felt like a new woman. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Kate looked at her father’s eyes and saw nothing but a smugness that she didn’t fully understand but for the first time she felt a connection to the man. Nina’s death had been a horrible wake up call for Kate. She now realized, first hand no less, what those inhuman creatures were truly capable of. They were all the same. Even Derek. He’d murdered the very same girl he’d sworn to love. They couldn’t love. Werewolves, like any other thing that wasn’t human, were monsters. There was no doubt in her mind. No more cuddling them by giving them second chances or benefit of the doubt as their stupid code practically suggested. Each and every supernatural deserved to go down, to die like the animals they pretended not to be. 

“They deserve to be killed.” Gerard reminded her. “To be put down like the animals they are. Do it. Prove it to me that you’re not weak and daft.”

That’s exactly what Kate did. She came up with a clever way to rid the world of the Hale pack using mountain ash and a frustrated chemistry teacher's knowledge to get away with it and didn’t feel a thing as she watched the place burn down. Kate was numb, but proud of her work. As the flames of the fire illuminated the early morning, she felt a certain satisfaction in the pit of her stomach. Her thirst for revenge wasn’t quenched with that, though. She wanted more blood. Preferably the blood of her mother’s murderer, but Gerard had taken care of that, too. Perhaps the more blood Kate spilled the more independent Kate could become and the less she’d have to see Gerard’s face. The more trust she regained from the old man, the more Kate could get away with. For some reason, the old man still followed the code, in a corrupted manner that is. Kate, though, she just wanted blood. Enough of her own had been spilled over the years. Now it was her turn to strike back. Gerard had beaten her down to a pulp while she’d been locked up, and Kate simply could not endure any more of that.

With the majority of the Hales gone, Kate was left with nothing more to do but, once again, disappear to take care of other business. The little furry bundle that Derek had left her with had to be taken care of so that her father never found out about it. If he ever did… Kate was sure he’d kill her.  
Unfortunately, when push came to shove, Kate couldn’t get rid of it. She tried, a few times, but she always stopped with tears in her eyes. She was still weak, it seemed. Too sentimental and attached. When it finally came to deliver the baby, Kate had hoped she could just kill it like she’d done with the Hales, but she still couldn’t lay a hand on the kid.  
The little girl that came from her womb was so precious and innocent, but more important than anything, she was human. She’d survived the many beatings Kate had endured, clung to life and refused to let go. Kate figured that she deserved a chance to live. She was curious how long she would last in a cold and harsh world that would never soften the blows. That’s the only reason why Kate kept the child, as an experiment. 

At least that’s what she told herself. Because if she was honest, there was a part of Kate that wanted nothing more than to protect Astor from everything that could possibly harm her. However, that part of Kate was too small, too beaten and hurt to ever really rise up and do what was right. More often than not, Kate couldn’t look at Astor. She was the spitting image of Derek Hale, her biggest mistake. The child constantly reminded her of her weakness. Disgusted, Kate had to leave but she didn’t want to part with her kid, so she eventually took it to her father knowing that he wouldn't find out who the real father was. At least not after she'd covered her tracks with another hunter, an idiot who died on the job they'd partnered up for who just happened to resemble Astor where it mattered. Like always, Gerard Argent wasn’t above name calling and belittling her, but he at least accepted Astor on the condition that they kept her a secret from Chris. Not like Kate was eager to have her brother meddling into her business so she readily accepted.

All Kate wanted was her freedom and occasionally see Astor. Whether she was a bad memory or not, Kate still wanted to remind herself why she did what she did on a daily basis, so that she didn’t lose focus. All while pretending to have a normal life and enjoying life as much as possible. Her only joy in life was, ironically, Allison. Her brother’s daughter had always been her one true love. Allison never judged her, or criticized her. The kid looked up to Kate, loved her unconditionally and despite all the bitterness in her heart, she couldn’t help it but love the kid. That’s how Kate Argent managed to get over her delusions of ever being normal or good like she’d always wanted. Reality hit her like a freight train and put her on her place. Argents were cursed. It’s just that Kate was going to make sure she shared that with others.


End file.
